A new question on child care in the 2006 Census has resulted in figures showing that 27% of people aged 15+ provided some kind of child care in the two weeks before the Census.

Twenty-one percent of women and 18% of men provided cared for their own children only, while 9% of women and 5% of men cared only for other people's children.

Four-fifths (80%) of child care provided by parents for their own children was provided by people aged 30–49 years. Half (50%) of child care provided to other people's children was by people aged 50-69 years. Many of these were likely to be the children's grandparents.

This is the first time ABS has included a question on unpaid child care in the Census. The results will assist in understanding the contribution of unpaid work to Australian society.

Comprehensive information about child care and other aspects of unpaid work will be available from the ABS Time Use Survey. These results will be released in late 2007.

NB: The figures in this fact sheet exclude overseas visitors. Where an answer to a question has not been provided (i.e. not stated) these occurrences form a separate category in the data and therefore some percentages do not total to 100%.

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